100-year-old power wire slows trains

Jim Shay

Updated 11:38 pm, Thursday, August 28, 2014

Metro-North rail service was disrupted Thursday morning after a 100-year-old power wire failed in East Norwalk.

That forced the railroad to make some train changes that caused delays along the New Haven Line for about four hours.

The century-old wire was on the westbound local track, putting that track out of service. The eastbound express track was also out of service at the time for an ongoing project to replace timbers on the 118-year-old Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River.

Because the railroad was down to two usable tracks, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said Metro-North had to make operational changes to get the trains through East Norwalk.

Eastbound trains bypassed the East Norwalk, Westport and Greens Farms stations. Riders to and from these stations had to "back-ride" to Southport or South Norwalk and change to a westbound train. Westbound train passengers had to board from the eastbound platforms from Greens Farm through Noroton Heights.

Because of train congestion, there were scattered delays along the New Haven Line. Delays at the peak of the morning rush hour lasted up to 20 minutes.

Donovan said the 10-foot section of damaged wire was discovered by the crew of a Metro-North train that left New Haven at 5:29 a.m. for Grand Central Terminal. Donovan said the train involved in spotting the pre-existing damage to the wire did not strike the power line.